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Re: dd: /dev/rsd0d: Device not configured (RPi4)



Thanks Greg and RVP for superb explanations, I appreciate them very much indeed.

It is clear to me now! I was blindily believing that /dev/rsd0d was the whole disc as I have been used to (without thinking too much) in my amd64 systems from which I have issued dd flashing commands.

I must admit (I come from Linux world) that the a, b, c d, e...naming scheme was very strange to me the first time I found it when decided t install my first NetBSD system, I was used to the /dev/sda1, 2, 3, 4...naming, you know...

I am happy now for having understood this with your help!

Regards.
Ramiro.





El 14/7/25 a las 15:13, Greg Troxel escribió:
You are missing that Unix tradition is that normal computers:

   a: /
   b: swap
   c: whole disk
   d,e,f,h,h: /var /usr (and so on)

and that generally there is just a disklabel, which fits inside a which
is first.

As a exception on PCs, and hence i386/amd64, instead there is often a
MBR partition table, and within that a "*BSD partition", with the
convention:

   a: /
   b: swap
   c: entire NetBSD partition as specified in MBR
   d: entire disk
   e: /var
   f: /usr
   g: /home
   h: /foo

One can also make a partition table entry that covers blocks not in (c), for
other MBR partitions.

(With GPT this is all different.)

So on a RPI4, which is not a PC, you will find rsd0c as the whole disk.
Just like on a pdp11 with 2.11BSD :-), vax, and pretty much everything
not-PC.

But, I recommend a practice of looking at tables and understanding
first.

   gpt show sd0
   disklabel sd0

and beware "Fictitious" which means there is no label.

I expect that if you run disklabel on that drive on an amd64, the fake
disklabel will show a/d and on RPI, a/c.

As an example, here's what an old 500G disk that has been zeroed (well,
written with zeroes and block counters) shows, on amd64:

   # /dev/rsd0:
   type: SCSI
   disk: Disk Device
   label: fictitious
   flags:
   bytes/sector: 512
   sectors/track: 32
   tracks/cylinder: 64
   sectors/cylinder: 2048
   cylinders: 477102
   total sectors: 977105060
   rpm: 3600
   interleave: 1
   trackskew: 0
   cylinderskew: 0
   headswitch: 0           # microseconds
   track-to-track seek: 0  # microseconds
   drivedata: 0

   4 partitions:
   #        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
    a: 977105060         0     4.2BSD      0     0     0  # (Cyl.      0 - 477102*)
    d: 977105060         0     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.      0 - 477102*)
   disklabel: boot block size 0
   disklabel: super block size 0



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